{"id":2036,"date":"2024-12-03T07:54:32","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T06:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/?p=2036"},"modified":"2025-01-13T14:09:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T13:09:44","slug":"supplement-to-wages-for-part-time-employees-for-work-beyond-scheduled-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/en\/supplement-to-wages-for-part-time-employees-for-work-beyond-scheduled-hours\/","title":{"rendered":"Supplement to Wages for Part-Time Employees for Work Beyond Scheduled Hours"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The issue of wage supplements for work beyond scheduled hours has been a topic of controversy for years<strong>. Last year, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a landmark ruling in the <em>Lufthansa CityLine C-660\/20<\/em> case, which set a new precedent.<\/strong> Over the past year, another significant ruling from the CJEU has reinforced this perspective.<\/p>\n<p>In Poland, work performed in overtime or beyond scheduled hours is strictly regulated to protect employees\u2019 health, guarantee the right to rest, and ensure a proper work-life balance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is overtime work, and what is work beyond scheduled hours?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Overtime work<\/strong> refers to work performed beyond the regular working time limits applicable to an employee. These limits apply to <strong>full-time employees<\/strong>, typically 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week in Poland. Overtime, therefore, could include working 9 hours a day for someone employed full-time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Work beyond scheduled hours<\/strong> applies to <strong>part-time employees<\/strong> working beyond the time specified in their employment contract. For instance, if a part-time employee is contracted to work 4 hours a day but works 6 hours, the extra 2 hours constitute work beyond scheduled hours.<\/p>\n<p>For overtime work, in addition to regular wages, full-time employees in Poland are entitled to a wage supplement. This supplement amounts to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>100% of the regular wage<\/strong> for work on holidays, at night, or on days off.<\/li>\n<li><strong>50% of the regular wage<\/strong> for overtime on regular workdays.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For example, a full-time employee working beyond 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week would receive the regular wage plus the applicable supplement for each overtime hour.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do part-time employees qualify for overtime supplements?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Under Polish labor law (Article 151 \u00a7 5 of the Labor Code), <strong>employers and part-time employees are required to agree in their employment contract on a permissible number of additional hours beyond the contracted hours.<\/strong> <strong>Only work exceeding this agreed limit qualifies for an overtime supplement.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For example: a part-time employee contracted to work 4 hours a day but working 6 hours would receive their regular wage for the additional 2 hours. These hours do not qualify for an overtime supplement unless they exceed the agreed limit set in the contract.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court of Poland confirmed this interpretation in a 2014 ruling (I PK 249\/13). The Court reasoned that part-time and full-time employees are treated equally because both receive the same wage for the same number of hours worked (even if the part-time employee does not receive an overtime supplement for these additional hours).<\/p>\n<p>To this time, Polish law followed the principle that <strong>part-time employees are not entitled to overtime supplements unless their contract explicitly defined a limit for extra hours, which was exceeded.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In practice employers often <strong>set high thresholds for additional hours in contracts (making them unreachable for part-time employees)<\/strong> or <strong>omit such limits entirely<\/strong>. As a result, even if a part-time employee works 10 hours a day, they may only be entitled to regular wages for the extra hours, without the supplement.<\/p>\n<p>Is there currently any chance to claim a wage supplement for overtime if working part-time? Yes \u2013 thanks to the latest CJEU rulings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recent CJEU Rulings: a turning point<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On July 29, 2024, the CJEU issued a ruling in combined cases C-184\/22 and C-185\/22, asserting that <strong>part-time employees who work beyond their contracted hours and do not receive overtime supplements are subject to unequal treatment compared to full-time employees.<\/strong> This ruling is grounded in Clause 4(1) of Directive 97\/81\/EC, which prohibits discrimination against part-time workers.<\/p>\n<p>The CJEU also highlighted the issue of indirect discrimination. It found that <strong>national regulations could disproportionately disadvantage women if a higher percentage of women are employed part-time compared to men, as was the case in this instance. <\/strong>However, each case must be evaluated individually to determine if there are objective justifications for such regulations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Potential Impact of the CJEU Rulings on the Polish Labor Market<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The CJEU ruling provides a <strong>solid basis for part-time employees to seek legal recourse for unpaid overtime supplements. <\/strong>Workers may now demand payment for supplements related to work beyond their scheduled hours.<\/p>\n<p>Polish courts, including the Supreme Court, are <strong>obligated to adapt their practices in line with the CJEU\u2019s current position, respecting the EU principle of legal precedence.<\/strong> This approach stems from the obligation to uphold the EU principle of primacy, which applies to all courts and authorities in Poland.<\/p>\n<p><em>Agnieszka Bodzek <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>paralegal<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the supplement for work beyond scheduled hours? What constitutes work beyond scheduled hours versus overtime? Do part-time employees qualify for this wage supplement?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-labour-law"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2036"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2253,"href":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions\/2253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milewska.legal\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}